Even in the face of global stardom, Lousy Bunny isn’t interested in changing. In a recent interview with GQ, the Puerto Rican rapper and singer revealed that the scale of his following completely plummets most of the time. From his vantage point, he always makes music with his house in mind.
“I’ve never made a song thinking, ‘Man, this is for the world. It’s to capture the general gringo audience. Never,” said Bad Bunny, born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio. “On the contrary, I make songs as if only Puerto Ricans are going to listen to them. I still think I’m here to make music, and that’s for Puerto Ricans. I forget that the whole world listens to me.
All of Terrible Bunny’s greatest heroes growing up, be it Vico C or Tego Calderón, have been championed without having to compromise their artistic point of view to break into a new audience. So he won’t either – but it’s not like he needs to.
“Sometimes Latinos would want to record with an American, and because they’re American, they’d think, ‘I have to do this.’ Nobody. He’s not at the level that I am, you know? Just because they’re American,” he said. “But that perspective has changed. You can see that now. Suddenly, ‘Wow, Negative Bunny has been the most listened to on Spotify for 70 days. It wasn’t the American. It’s that guy, who’s Latino.
As more and more artists begin to follow the path he bulldozed while dominating the pop arena, Lousy Bunny prepares to break boundaries even further. In April, the musician landed the role of Spider-Man antagonist El Muertro, a super-powered wrestler and the first Latin Marvel character to direct his own live-action movie.
Alongside the movie on the horizon, Bad Bunny also has an appearance in the blockbuster starring Brad Pitt Bullet Prepare and a recurring role on Netflix’s Narcos: Mexico. And to top it off, he’s also just released his fourth studio album Un Verano Sin Ti – a streaming giant of a record that has battled accolades previously held by Drake.
But the artist has no interest in coasting. In fact, he said he felt everything a bit more as the influx of opportunities continued to pour in. “Maybe for some people it’s different in that the higher they go, the less pressure they feel, because maybe they’re convinced that whatever they do is going to be a success. But me, it’s It’s quite the opposite: the more audience I get, the higher I go, the more pressure there is.
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